The Genius Animation Behind Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse | Analysis

Film in 2018

Wins, losses, duds, triumphs, we had everything in the year 2018!

Every film released in 2018 that I saw will get a shoutout, so keep reading.

Movie I Thought Was A Humongous Improvement Over Its Predecessor: Ralph Breaks the Internet

src

Movie That Tried Its Best - I Think: A Wrinkle In Time

This is apparently a very difficult property to adapt, and as I've never read the book, after about an hour and a half I was completely lost. The CGI is ugly. But it is diverse and has a nice message for black girls so, yay, small wins.

Movie that Ignored Solar Power to Great (Dis)effect: The Cloverfield Paradox

I don't want to talk about it because my notes are just as confused as I am - still.

Fun fact! There are still several movies, but I have no idea if I can get to them by the end of the year. So, here we are.

#75: Aquaman

The posters are so nice for this movie, I really couldn't decide which one to use.

They reflect the 80's, out under this world wild glow that Atlantis is surrounded by, and the score certainly helps.

Pitbull's rendition of Toto's Africa a bit less so.

The 6th movie in the much-maligned DC Extended Universe, and critically their second-best one to boot, although that's more a case of "Not as bad" and less "Genuinely good on its own merits".

Before DC fans whip out the doxxing - These people are insane - I'm one of you. And there are plenty of things I liked about this movie.

Besides "talks to fish" and "laughingstock", I'm not familiar with Aquaman at all; This movie raised some questions for me;

2018: The Year in Funko (For Me)

Funko did some good stuff this year. Some annoying stuff, like the very limited initial runs of Target's Pikachu, but mostly good stuff.

The Return of The Queen(s)

View this post on Instagram

Be careful who you call ugly in middle School #funkopop #disney

A post shared by Mori (@madmorifuryroad) on Oct 4, 2018 at 10:16am PDT

View this post on Instagram

#starbucks #starwars #funkopop

A post shared by Mori (@madmorifuryroad) on Nov 6, 2018 at 1:15pm PST

Two of my favorite Disney girls, Vanellope and Padmé, got new POPs and new molds. There's not so much of a difference with Padmé, I think, but Vanellope is really nothing but highly improved.

#74: Isle of Dogs

This is a quiet movie.

Lots of pauses, considerations, moments. It seems like a very deliberate choice  - Maybe a nod to a slower style of narration in Japan - but it just gave me ample time to think "...This doesn't make sense."

It's never explained why the dogs don't understand Japanese but understand English besides "Well, most of our voice actors don't speak Japanese,". You could eliminate 80% of said voice actors to no real loss of the main narrative - A boy wants to find his dog that's been exiled.

The stuff with the humans and their government conspiracy is way more interesting than the aspect with the talking dogs. How do you make humans more interesting than talking dogs?

Until about 50 minutes in. Then the movie started to kick up into gear and grow on me.

It looks great, dirty and lived in while very clearly being fake - Bits of fire and steam are represented with fluff. I especially like how nothing is shied away from when it comes to seeing some light gore, or a sushi master prepare food by cutting up and pinning down fresh seafood. Desplat always has a great score.

With quite a few asides to one exchange student, we get to see the 'ordinary' side of this strange life.

There are a few questionable choices but I expected nothing different from a white man who loves the ~aesthetic of things.

It will come down to this vs. Spiderverse on the awards circuit. So far, in the smaller, local critic's circles, I believe Isle is winning by two or three.

#73: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey ("Rise of The Guardians") and Rodney Rothman - and who expected this, a Spiderman movie, to be the standout movie of 2018?

One that has the focus on Miles Morales, not Peter Parker (so much)?

We had faith in Marvel, and knew Black Panther would be great.

But Sony? They couldn't get their Live-Action Spiderman right without Marvel's help, though I enjoy those Sam Raimi films.

And Sony Animation? Emoji Movie Sony Animation? Excuse me if my hopes were just kind of...mellowed.

But with the rising positive word of mouth and repeated instances of this being not only the best animated movie of the year, but one of the best period - my hopes rose too.

Many great movies have come out, but only a handful have made me consider placing them in my #1 spot of favorite movie ever, a spot that has been held by Kung Fu Panda since it's premiere day.

I think this is the film to finally take the crown.

The Golden Globe Nominations 2019

You know me, we're only sticking with the film side because I truly could not tell you a thing about the television aspect besides "OMG Amy!" 

Best Original Song – Motion Picture
“All the Stars” (“Black Panther”)
“Girl in the Movies” (“Dumplin’”)
“Requiem For a Private War” (“A Private War”)
“Revelation’ (“Boy Erased”)

“Shallow” (“A Star Is Born”)

I've only heard of two of these songs, and I'm glad! I expected them to pick a Mary Poppins Returns song, glad they passed for some far less known fare.

PREDICTED WINNER: Shallow

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Amy Adams (“Vice”)
Claire Foy (“First Man”)
Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”)
Emma Stone (“The Favourite”)
Rachel Weisz (“The Favourite”)

This is probably our lineup for the Oscars as well, give or take a lady from The Favourite. Regina King has been winning on the localized award circuits for her performance, it would certainly be nice to see either her or Amy win.

Annapurna's "Vice" was the big potential winner of the morning, netting more nominations than any other movie, including it's sister movies (Which received 3 and 1 nominations).

PREDICTED WINNER: No idea.

Best Motion Picture – Animated
“Incredibles 2”
“Isle of Dogs”
“Mirai”
“Ralph Breaks the Internet”
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”

Oho! The Globes brought Mirai back from potential award irrelevance. Let's hope that Disney won't spend the money to push I2 or WIR 2 so it or Spider-Verse sneaks in the win.

PREDICTED WINNER: Probably a Disney movie.